My Workbench

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

1/700 French 74-gun Ship Fougueux

This is my second completed Temeraire class 74-gun Mann O'War PLA 3D printed ship designed by Simon Mann. It is also my second try at real cloth sails. Like the last ship, I have previously built and posted the Fougueux in 1/1200 scale back in April of 2017. She was launched in 1795 and fought at Trafalgar. She was captured by HMS Temeraire and perished in the storm that followed the battle. The ship's boats and all of the rest, aside from the hull, is scratch built. Hope you like it!



Tracing the sails out on the cloth

The 1/450 scale plastic sails from a Pyro Victory kit

Cloth sails dipped in PVA/water/paint mix and stretched over the templates

Making the furled sprit sail

Sails and masts laid out

Partial sails and standing rigging done and ratlines ready to be trimmed














I don't know about the cloth sails. Is it too much? The paper is a lot easier and I'm not sure how much better they look. I think I might have gone too far trying to get more billow effect on this one. The first one is probably better. Please tell me what you think, are the sails on Dougay Trouin or Fouguex better? Do the paper sails on the Argonauta and Purisima Conception look better than these cloth sails?